Transnational Capitalism and the Struggle Over European Integration

Whose interests does the "new Europe" serve, and what kind of model of capitalism is being constructed in the European Union? This book presents an analysis of the transnational social forces in the making of a new European socio-economic order that emerged out of the European integration process during the 1980s and 1990s. Arguing that the political economy of European integration must be put within the context of a changing global capitalism, Van Apeldoorn examines how European change is linked to global change and how transnational actors mediate these changes. Van Apeldoorn contends that we can conceive of the process of European integration as a struggle between competing "projects" and related rival social forces. These projects each seek to define the content of European integration in different ways with regard to basic socio-economic questions. Globalization and the rise of a transnational capital mean that this struggle takes place in an increasingly transnational - rather than a merely domestic or international - arena.